


You are as fast as the rumours say

by rinharu_404



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Gen, Implied Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26743786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinharu_404/pseuds/rinharu_404
Summary: It started with the disappearance of his beloved Mackerel and ended up with Haruka having a realization about certain someone.
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	You are as fast as the rumours say

**Author's Note:**

> P.s This was supposedly a ghost AU premise. I saw it at Pinterest but forgot to save it and proceeded to forget about everything other than "Ghost Character"

He wasn't sure when was the first time it happened but there was a sense of deja vu with completely unrelated yet somehow related things.

Maybe the first time was when Makoto came to visit him along with his weekly grocery, and even though he reprimanded him about his mackerel obsession; he still bought him some because he went to the fish market with his GF today and thought Haruka would appreciate some fresh fishes. But when he opened the refrigerator, the last supply of mackerel was gone and Makoto made a truly offhanded comment about how he thought the last one will hold up for 2 weeks to come, yet Haruka had finished them up in 1 week. 

At that time, Haruka remembered being offended, thinking that Makoto would even offhandedly consider Haruka as a glutton. He loved mackerel and ate it 3 times a day 7 days a week but still, even he won't be able to finish 2 weeks worth in 1 week. But awfully suspicious of himself, Haruka ignored it.

Or maybe it was when Haruka had some friends over and he had decided to save a piece of mackerel as his celebratory dinner after his university friends left. But, before he could savour the last piece of that day, somehow it had ended up in his trashcan. He thought nothing of it because he could totally see Asahi doing something as stupid as that.

But rather than focusing on the first time it happened, Haruka was more unnerved by its regular pattern. One day in the refrigerator and the next day his beloved food stops existing. He was used to chalking up things like this to his unbothered attitude and resulting forgetfulness but, if he was finding notes of "don't eat the fish only", " seriously, are you a merman?" or "I can't believe you have no sense of variety in your dietary habits" by his stove, on the refrigerator's door, inside his convenience store shopping bags or after his fish market trip, then it can't just be his forgetfulness. Something definitely must be up, but that begged the question who among his friends would be annoyed enough with his eating habits to stalk him 24 hours and leave notes.

That required an emergency meeting, so he pulled out his phone from under his bed, Kisumi had kicked it there because he wanted to check how long he can go without a phone, to kisumi's surprise and his own, he needed it in just 3 days. He left a text to all his Iwatobi friends to meet him deciding, after ruling them out, he will fish out the culprit among his university friends. Considering they weren't that close to him to prank him for an extended amount of time.

But now that his Iwatobi friends had gathered and to his surprise, happy, Haruka realized he should probably meet up with them at least once monthly because Nagisa had somehow convinced everybody of, Haruka throwing a gettogether party since he missed them. In his defence, he did miss them but enough to warrant a get-together? Probably not. What was irksome to him was the nonchalance of his friends, either the culprit was pretty good at acting or none of them was a culprit. At Makoto's encouragement, he finally opened up about the random notes about his diet and the disappearance of mackerel. He did not appreciate Makoto's confused glance, as if he was bonkers but it soon turned into horrified after Nagisa suggested a ghost and then to relief when Rei suggested it was highly illogical.

Haruka was of the same opinion as Rei, even though when he was moving into the apartment, Makoto who was helping him out curiously asked as to why the rent was so cheap, the landlady had mournfully told them, a young boy, the previous tenant, got into a serious accident and after that nobody would take the apartment because they thought it was probably cursed. It was obvious, she had managed to hide it from Haruka till he signed the contract but it didn't matter to Haruka considering how big were the bathtub and the kitchen area. He had chalked it up to the Gods helping him out. However, after Nagisa's suggestion, he felt mildly anxious and he couldn't put a finger as to why.

The same vibe occurred with his university friends. He could guess, Asahi throwing his food in the trash to get back at him for something but the fact he would write such neat notes was beyond Asahi. Other than the vibe though, Haruka was sure none of them was pulling it because Asahi had suggested a truth and dare game and decided to write dares on a piece of paper. Ikuya and kisumi helped him write them too. Haruka was unimpressed by the game and wanted no part in it but the hope of getting a clue was more than enough. So he did and was thoroughly disappointed that none of his friend's writing matched with the notes. This revelation did not help with the anxiety he had been feeling for a while now.

Days came and went, but he still couldn't figure out why he was still receiving those notes, irritated he even tried to bring variety by trying out different mackerel dish combos but to no effect. The note writer was as irritating as always and had now extended their nagging to the way he lazes around in his bathtub too much, how he eats no other meat than fish, or his lack of exercise but Haruka did swim regularly, so he was certain that the note writer was not aware of how much exertion a body took while swimming. Haruka's certainty was dashed to dust when the note saying "you need land training too to keep your body in shape" appeared, so they definitely knew something about it.

Turned out it wasn't something, as on a whim, Haruka had decided to leave a note of "how would you know" because maybe he felt salty or maybe he had gotten used to notes appearing everywhere and had somehow developed a friendship in a sense. The response excited him more than it should have. He, by no way, knew this strange note writer, had no idea what their name was or where they lived, and most importantly why they decided to take the role of a dietician when Haruka definitely did not want one. All these questions and yet, the moment Haruka saw, "I was training to be an Olympic swimmer", all logic and rationality jumped out of the window. Before even thinking through he wrote his 2nd and next note "Did water like you?" and left it at his bedside table before turning in for sleep.

Morning, nowadays, would usually bring a note with it, written in neat writing somewhere in his apartment, and somehow it had become a Haruka's morning ritual of sorts to check all the possible areas for notes. This time around, he didn't need to go further because the note was where he left his own. It sounded a little angry, Haruka didn't know why though, maybe it was because it just said "THE HECK?!!", he still took a chance and assumed they probably were illiterate regarding water's emotion, maybe they were like Rei. Who knows, maybe, they were REI, impossible but not completely. So, before leaving for his training, he left a note asking their name.

That day Haruka knew something different, something new, something which should have touched heights of anxiety yet failed to do so. He knew the name of his note writer, it was Rin Matsuoka. It did confirm one thing, he did not know any Rin, so maybe, he was being stalked by a ghost girl after all. The shoujo setting of his life did not deter him from asking personal questions such as if she swims free or were they part of lesser beings if she let water embrace her or did she ever feel water-resisting her. The response came earlier stating, Rin, in fact, had swum free on multiple occasions but preferred fly over it, the rest of the questions were utterly ridiculous and didn't warrant HIS time, proceeding to sound indignant about his misconceived gender still through his writing, a skill set Haruka thought would be annoying to deal with in real life too. The "never meeting face to face" had made Haruka think he had hallucinated Rin and there was no Rin in real life. It, somehow, made him bolder because Haruka had gotten in a habit of leaving a pile of questions waiting to be answered.

It had become a part of Haruka's daily routine of sorts. He will leave questions, Rin will leave answers in exchange for making Haruka do something he had never done or hadn't done in a while. 

That day he had come back home this time just to be disappointed, Rin did not like mackerel, he liked meat, somebody should have informed his fish was a meat Haruka wrote back to him bitterly, Rin loved timing his races, competition thrilled him, but there was Haruka's bitter reality, the only way he could swim free was by getting an athlete's scholarship and now he was stuck with cold claws of water and ticking of clocks.

He wasn't performing well, that was a fact in itself, and everybody around him knew that but what they didn't understand was that water had left Haruka and it was pain like no other. Growing up, his parents were always out and about for work, he was basically raised by his grandmother. His grandmother loved the sea and that love was inherited to Haruka. After his grandmother passed away, he had become increasingly lonely, sure Makoto was there and there were his other friends too, but the water was the only thing which made him stop thinking about anything else, in those moments, nobody and nothing existed. But, now, Haruka had lost water's embrace. He didn't think much when he penned down all his frustrations on the piece of paper and left to take a long bath because he didn't know who else to turn to, other than water itself. 

Morning came and left sneakily between his classes and training. When he was done with the day and returned to his bed, he found another note. It didn't sound bitter, angry, or confused. Rin didn't pity him, he just told him how his father dreamed of being an Olympic swimmer and then for their family, he became a fisherman but the sea took his father away from him. So, for him, the only way to connect with his father was through his father's dream; he decided to take that dream and pursue the Olympics. He worked hard, went to Australia but was the slowest swimmer there, it was hard, it felt like he had hit an unending wall, there was no way out, he felt like a failure; the only thing which made him strive hard was this one boy he had once raced against, in his elementary school. He wanted to swim against that boy again because it gave him a rush like never before, his form was elegant, his movements were beautiful and there was a certain sort of unbothered attitude of his which he wanted to break up in pieces and heat him up with his own swimming. The boy had eyes like the ocean's vast blue.

Haruka vaguely felt himself roll up in his cover and hold his knees. He remembered that race Rin was talking about, he remembered there being a guy he had once raced in his elementary. Something about racing with him, made Haruka's primal instinct kick in. He remembered feeling like a shark gaining on him and ready to swallow him whole and uncharacteristically he had moved faster, swam a little further, making sure the shark is left in the dust behind. He remembered getting out of the pool slightly breathless, a new thing for him, his body tingling and every cell of his bursting with unknown energy. He remembered a boy with eyes like drops of blood made a home there, hairs a rich maroon, and a toothy smile to check off everything on a list, unbeknownst to Haruka yet still annoying. He remembered that boy telling him "you are as fast as the rumours say" just like Rin had said after finishing his race against that blue-eyed boy. Rin didn't take any name but Haruka had this unsettling feeling and he knew, somehow. He really wanted to swim with that boy again, he wanted that chase again, he wanted to feel that sensation again in every inch of his body because he missed the water and he wanted that water again.

Countless notes were written but like his grandmother, who left one day and never turned up again, Rin's notes disappeared. His story being the last note he ever wrote to Haruka. Like he missed his grandmother's chair creaking, he missed notes in neat writing sprawled over his kitchen, bedside table, or refrigerator. The routine seemed useless now, but Haruka remembered his childhood morning routine, of making breakfast for two, had stuck for a while and like he had made an extra plate for his grandmother every day for few weeks, he had written an extra note without a fail.

It had gotten to a point that Makoto had called an emergency meeting at his place without informing him. His Iwatobi friends dropped unceremoniously at the same time and after Makoto confessed his rude interference, he urged him to share what was on his mind. Like a dam waiting to be exploded, Haruka laid out all his miseries. It didn't escape his attention, Nagisa strangling the pillow to death with uncontrollable excitement, Makoto's pale fa,ce, and Rei's mouth twitching with a desire to object. They had learned to be polite enough to not interrupt.

After a tea session and few questions here and there Makoto suggested going for a name check, Rei turned down the idea effectively reminding everybody that they didn't know if Rin even lived in Tokyo. Rin was just there for Haruka and he didn't need to share his location with him. A constant presence in his life, urging him to do things out of comfort zone, challenging him on ridiculous things like finishing a painting in an hour, watching something other than Japan's beautiful waterfall docu-series, eating eggs for breakfast, making him go to a zoo even though he had spent the entire time by swan's pond. Haruka didn't even remember how Rin managed to rile him up with mere written words but he remembered Rin's nighttime notes, his breakfast notes, and sometimes notes in the closet telling Haruka to buy new clothes for some upcoming event.

He didn't want another grandmother type memory so he interrupted and asked Makoto if they can still try to find him. Makoto looked at him like his mother had looked at him after he told her grandmother likes to eat her mackerel with miso, but he didn't hug her as his mother had done so, he didn't say sorry as his mother had said so, he didn't tell him "you must be missing them a lot" like he had told him so. Rei and Nagisa had silently gotten up and sat by the phone. Slowly and gradually they started checking off people who did not know Rin. Their best bet being he must have a swimmer friend, who might know Rin too.

The night seemed bleak with none of his swimming team members knowing about Rin but the morning had brought hope in form of a basketball standoff. Asahi and Kisumi had started fighting on who was Asahi's nephew's favourite uncle and ended it up with a challenge. Haruka had no interest in participating and helped his managers bring water and food for the rest of the guys. Just like a random throw in the air, a kick to the stray pebble on the ground, Kisumi threw off Rin's name. It had taken Haruka by surprise, hearing Kisumi mention his Sano elementary friends Sousuke and Rin, who even though we're in the swimming club, still loved to indulge Kisumi's love for basketball. The match had halted at Haruka's frenzied, "You know Rin?". Kisumi looked at him strangely but didn't answer nor probe him any further.

Haruka knew he wasn't close enough to Kisumi to make him spill the beans but Makoto was the kind one. He invited his Iwatobi friends and his University friends to his place. Kisumi was still in a strange mood but Asahi was holding the fort quite well. Ikuya consistently gave him suspicious looks but Haruka had decided that today was the day he was going to meet Rin and tell him off for not writing to him anymore. Once Makoto and Co had arrived, every gear started working to settle in right place. Clearly, Makoto was more sensible in asking how he remembered a red-haired kid from Sano had raced with them once and he wondered what he was doing now.

Haruka belatedly decided that he did not like the look which passed Kisumi's face. He mentioned Rin again but the heavy voice, down-turned lips, and watery eyes unsettled Haruka. It didn't help when Kisumi finally told about Rin because what else he would be, if not a ghost of the person, Haruka once knew in water.

Rin had lived in this apartment, albeit briefly before Haruka decided to take it up. Summer vacation turned into a nightmare within a week, Kisumi mentioned. The trio had decided to tour Tokyo while looking for universities, a bittersweet goodbye vacation because Rin was scouted by an Australian university but Kisumi and Sousuke had yet to decide. A car accident, a trailer hitting with it's the full force at the driver's side. Rin driving the car, just dropping off Kisumi and Sousuke at Kisumi's uncle's place, a small distance behind. A ventilator helping Rin, a dream left unrealized once again for the Matsuoka family. The constant beeping of the machine in his hospital room, daily visits turned to weekly, and finally once a month.

Haruka didn't realize he was holding his breath, not till Makoto followed up a question, Haruka wanted to ask and yet avoid at the same time. Incase if knowing the answer will make it more real and he had enough of reality in one day. Kisumi, probably lighthearted after sharing his trauma, gave the hospital name and room number readily. If Haruka had known Rin as a mere ghostwriter then Kisumi had known him for his entire life, if radio-silence from Rin's ghost was painful to bear, who knows, what Kisumi must have gone through, watching his friend get into an accident right in front of his eyes.

Haruka didn't think he would be meeting Rin in a ghostly white building with the smell of chemicals in almost every corner. In fact, he didn't think about meeting Rin at all, he just wanted him to be there, like always, as his six month kind of always. It was hard to think that almost half a year had passed by and Rin had stayed with him all that while but thinking it made his mouth bitter. If he stayed for six months, why couldn't he stay a little longer, why even come in his life for six months. Though, the moment he walked into his hospital room, all he could see was red spilt on pristine white pillows. But Rin wasn't looking at him, like he had looked at him when he told him, "You are as fast as the rumours say". For a while he kept staring at him, not moving at all until a softer face and longer hair version of Rin stepped in front of his eyes. She introduced herself as Rin's sister, their mother sitting in a chair by Rin's bed. She had a gentle smile and either the age had done a number on her gentle face or the loss of her husband at a young age and almost losing her son too.

Gou Matsuoka kept talking with Kisumi and Nagisa had surprisingly started a fight with her in record time but Haruka's attention was back to the face sleeping peacefully, without a care in the world. It made Haruka want to pinch him for making him go through those tiresome, restless nights and anxious, disappointed mornings. But he gathered resolve and turned towards Gou when Makoto asked if there has been any improvement. Mrs Matsuoka's tired face had somehow brightened up, she told them while smiling, he had been twitching his fingers for a while. Doctors were hopeful, she said. They had told them that Rin had higher chances of waking up in a year, retaining more than forty-two per cent of brain activity but now that he had moved his fingers, they were giving him a trial of a ventilator. 

When Haruka had returned to his place, he resolved to be in his best condition to defeat Rin. Granted Rin will have to go through physiotherapy after waking up, it still didn't mean he could slack. The idea of feeling, what he felt in his elementary school race, gave him a renewed passion for swimming. So, he kept writing Rin's notes every day and he kept surprising his coach by asking his guidance regarding his mistakes and times.

Haruka had been mindlessly drawing with a red pencil when his phone chimed. It was an unknown number but that didn't matter, what mattered was the content of the message. He took off as soon as he finished reading the message. He didn't know why he wanted to be there when Rin woke up but he wasn't the one to question his bothersome feelings and like always, he gave into them without thinking through. Kisumi was already there, he beamed as soon as he saw him, Makoto just joined the party five minutes after him. He was accompanied by a tall, brooding guy with dark hairs and teal eyes, glaring everyone in his way. Kisumi had rushed past him and hugged the guy, to Haruka's surprise the guy hugged him back. After looking at Kisumi for awhile, Makoto finally managed to communicate what he wanted, so Kisumi introduced the guy with them as Sousuke Yamazaki. After introductions were done, Sousuke asked what Haruka couldn't get the courage to ask for. "How is he?". A simple question attached with hope, love, and everything else in between. Kisumi didn't know much though and said to wait for Gou to call them in. The doctors were conducting basic check-ups to see if everything was okay. They didn't have to wait much, Gou had called them in quickly after he had received his delivery of mackerel dish-set by a nearby seafood restaurant. They all had piled up into Rin's room immediately, ignoring the doctor's and nurses' displeasure. The moment his eyes landed on those red orbs, Haruka once again felt something akin to anxiety. Why would his eyes widen? did he not remember him? how could he though? Wasn't he a ghost when he met Haruka, even then, they never saw each other. Rin's eyes took a fraction of a second to go back to their original state of amusement. He cordially met Sousuke and Kisumi. Formally introduced to Makoto, asking if they ever met. Makoto laughed and said once, in a competition. An apology was given by Gou for informing them a week late because Rin was confused and it took a while for him to get used to everything and catch up on stuff post-accident. After everything was said and done all eyes were suddenly turned towards him. He didn't know if he should introduce himself formally or smack Rin on his head for making him worry so much but the way Rin had a hint of a smile on his face, Haruka hoped, he may not need to. Because, if anything, he wouldn't want to be a stranger to Rin.

Gawking at Rin was probably not a good idea because Sousuke's glare had intensified but before Haruka could snap on Sousuke, Rin's voice reached his ears and all of sudden, he realized, he didn't need water to feel his body burn up in a burst of energy, all he needed was Rin. His mind, a little late, registered saying, "whatever" in response to Rin's "I remember you from the elementary swim competition, you were as fast as the rumours said". Rin was here, hopefully, to stay for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> P.p.s I wasn't planning to go so subtle that even I had to squint my eyes. I am not sure if I should tag "Rin/Haruka" or "Rin & Haruka" in the relationship tag.
> 
> Constructive Criticism is welcomed as always.  
> (In my defence, I have proofread it 3x, if you do notice a major mistake or even a minor one, do let me know, I will correct it.)
> 
> Thank you for reading this.


End file.
